Wezaemon the Tombguard

Wezaemon the Tombguard (墓守のウェザエモン, Hakamori no Wezaemon) is an unique monster and one of The Seven Colossi.

Profile
Wezaemon is an armored samurai who stands and protects Setsuna's grave. He is located in the "Hidden Field", a reverse version of the secret Hidden Garden location. To reach him, players must start the Unique Scenario From the Living World, With Love.

The moment the party's transported to the Hidden Garden, all players' levels are cut down to Level 50. Any points applied to stats after Level 50 are also lost, which may cause issues with gear with minimum stat requirements.

During the first two phases, its not actually Wezaemon taking action, but his powered suit performing its given task of protecting the grave. It moves without any input from its owner, much the same as Setsuna of Faraway Days. In Phase 3, Wezaemon recovers his consciousness. This changes his element from "machine" to "undead". Since his physical body is "affixed" to the suit via advanced technology, the person inside is still a young man in his prime. Once Wezaemon goes into Phase 3, he wakes up, cancelling the "affixation" and instantly aging and crumbling him, effectively taking his own life. He's only able to keep moving until challengers unravel the secret behind Tensei thanks to a drive that overcomes all physical breakdown.

Background
Long ago, in the era known as Divinity, a combination of a chance, fleeting encounter, and a lie told on a passing whimsy by Wezaemon led to the death of Setsuna. Wezaemon then decided to guard her grave for a very, very long time to come. Setsuna, understanding this trait of Wezaemon's, wished just before her death for "someone to stop him, since he''ll never leave his post until they do - even if he dies". This was the birth of Setsuna of Faraway Days.

The barren cheery tree was planted by Wezaemon alongside Setsuna's grave; it was Setsuna's favorite flower. It was "affixed" to the spot much like Wezaemon was, but since its affixation was not as complete as Wezaemon's, it began to wither. To stop this, Wezaemon used the research thesis Setsuna left behind to harness the moon's magic power and "reverse" the time and space around it, transporting the grave (the buried Setsuna) and the tree from before it was mortally sickened to an area on the backside of time and space. The "normal space" of the area is depicted in the rotting woodblock, while the "rear space" is a print made from it. Time has stopped in the rear space at the moment of the reversal; in normal space, Setsuna's grave has completely fallen apart, and the not-fully-affixed tree, although still standing, is now completely dead. However, since Setsuna was buried by the roots of this tree, the spot where the stone once stood was treated as "Setsuna's location", and thus Setsuna of Faraway Days spawned out from the cherry tree in normal space.

In addition to being "affixed", the tree had assorted other semi-permanent life-extending treatments placed upon it. Once it died, these treatments, having nowhere else to go, began to energize vegetation across a wide range around them. This allowed luminescent moss, which normally emits just a faint glow, to blaze as brightly as the sun, and what used to be just a large cave turned into a lush, jungle-like environment, with flowers covering every inch of the ground. Thus, in an indirect fashion, the Prismatic Forest Grotto as seen today was the work of Wezaemon himself.

Wezaemon's Phases

 * Phase 1: Wezaemon is granted "Super Armor" and damage-reduction effect during Phase 1 and 2, which cancel out virtually all attacks. He also blocks debuffs and other types of magic. The moment the battle starts, he always targets the player closest to him and always aims for the head, so this initial blast is avoidable if they crouch down from his windup motion. Due to his story background, his first priority is protecting Setsuna's grave. Players close to it (or who try destroying it) will always be targeted first.


 * Phase 2: After ten minutes, the Phase 2 begins. Wezaemon then summons his horse mount golem "Kirin". Players must keep Kirin busy, otherwise if they merge with Wezaemon, things become even harder. After about another ten minutes, phase 2 ends.


 * Phase 3: When Phase 3 starts, he will always try using Tenki Yohou. Since he had turned to "undead", he can be interrupted. Wezaemon's armor is destroyed, allowing attacks to strike for damage. However, unless the attacks are fairly high-powered, he'll just ignore them and attack anyway.
 * At Phase 3, Wezaemon starts to use new abilities, but also begins loosing HP every second, reaching zero after around ten minutes if left alone - but that won't defeat him. Battle ends only if all players are alive after Seiten Taisei - they must all survive the Tensei slash. If one dies from Tensei and is revived, they must start all over.

If Wezaemon loses his blade, his actions are greatly restriced, which considerably lowers the difficulty of battle. However, winning the battle this way, will make Setsuna's affinity for them plummet, and theu will only receive the Inventoria Key as a reward (the Tome of Truth will not be awarded).

Abilities

 * Tachikaze (断風): is a lethal guard-breaking strike, said to last 1 frame (1/60 sec). Players must read its "tell" in advance, but its too short to spot on the first try.


 * Nyudo-Gumo (入道雲): after charging, unleashes a "cloud" hand that razes the area and kills on contact. The safest is above it or close to Wezaemon. With enough agility, you can outrun it.


 * Raisho (雷鐘): rains five lethal lightning bolts per second for five seconds. These home in on players to some extent and can bunch together, wiping out a whole party at once.


 * Ohshike (大時化): a grabbing move for when Wezaemon loses his sword. The smash damage hits harder the more the target weights, so tanks and heavies take serious damage. The attack comes straight at the target, so dodging isn't too tough. The move can also be parried. Wezaemon can also use it while wielding the sword.


 * Kasairyu (火砕龍): used only when Wezaemon's "Attack Focus" is targeted at three or more people. Planting his blade into the ground, he choses an "Attack Focus" target at random and summons a pillar of flame from the ground where he stands. Dodging isn't difficult, but its usually paired with Hai-Fubuki, and at worse can wipe out entire parties.


 * Hai-Fubuki (灰吹雪): used in tandem with Kasairyu, the flame pillars are turned into a dark smoke high above, coating a 5-yard radius around the area Kasairyu was cast in a choking fog. As a suffocation move, it's far harder to take than being slashed down.


 * Tenki Yohou (天鬼夜咆): a wide shockwave unleashed when entering Phase 3. Wezaemon is an "undead" type in Phase 3, thus a high-level purification item or magic can cancel it. It penetrates armor, so it kills instantly if it fully hits.


 * Seiten Taisei (晴天大征): a "Berserk Mode" triggered ten minutes into Phase 3. Unleashes a near-flurry of special moves for 30 seconds, which are picked at random. It can potentially leave Wezaemon open to attack, if for example unleashes several Tachikaze strikes in a row. "Tensei" triggers after 30 seconds if he has his sword.


 * Tensei (天晴): a vertical slash with every effect you can think of - insta-death, armor-piercing, armor-breaking, magic-piercing, skill-piercing, no-evade, etc. If you are hit, you are dead. Those effects only apply to his sword's blade, and if it doesn't hit its no different form of a high-strength slash.

Mount
During Phase 2, Wezaemon summons Kirin (騏驎), the Tactical Horse Mech, from his storage hyperspace. If left alone, the horse will storm across the field, firing missiles and lasers at random. After a set amount of time, it will try to merge with Wezaemon. Its weakness is that it constantly tries to buck off anyone riding it. The best way to shut it down until Phase 3, is to treat it like a rodeo horse. During Phase 3 its open to damage, but it has more vitality than Wezaemon.

Kirin has 3 forms:
 * Horse: in this form Kirin mostly runs around the field, spewing missiles and lasers. It goes into "bucking" motion when a players rides it.
 * Mount: in this form Kirin merges with Wezaemon in Phase 2. Kirin's head changes into a centaur-like form, spewing missiles, lasers, and rains of lightning as it swings its arms. Its impervious to damage.
 * Armor: Kirin takes this form in Phase 3. When its HP goes under 40% and its stomach armor breaks, it goes berserk and attacks all targets indiscriminately. A strikable energy core lies behind its stomach laser cannon. If merged with Wezaemon before casting Seiten Taisei, the resulting skill is gigantic and hellish.

Recommended Party
The recommended party is of 6-7 people and each must bring 3-4 resurrection items. The Wezaemon Striker, if possible, should be tanks with evasion skills or jobs with lots of evasion-type magic. The Kirin Striker, should be someone with the right player skills (or the "Rider" job), who can mount the Kirin and not get bucked off. Support, should be people with jobs that provide buffers or resurrection magic.

Trivia

 * Originally Wezaemon's stats where even higher, making him impossible to beat, however as he is part of the story, Tsukuyo and Ritsu were in disagreement and Ritsu ended up lowering his stats to balance him.
 * Wezaemon is the first defeated Colossi, however, as he was intended to be defeated later and be a mid- to end-game content, it caused some panic among the developers of the game.